The A.V. Club is an online newspaper[1] and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop culture media. The A.V. Club was created in 1993 as a supplement to The Onion, despite having a minimal presence on its website in its early years. A 2005 website redesign placed The A.V. Club in a more prominent position, allowing its online identity to grow. Unlike its parent publication, The A.V. Club is not satirical.[2]

In 1996, both The Onion and The A.V. Club made their internet debut.[4]The A.V. Club was originally a sub-section[5] of the main theonion.com domain name. It was eventually moved to its own theavclub.com domain name [6] before the 2005 acquisition of the shorter avclub.com domain name[7] which coincided with a redesign that incorporated reader comments and blog content. In 2006 the website shifted its content model again to add content on a daily, rather than weekly, basis.

In December 2004, Stephen Thompson left his position as founding editor of The A.V. Club.[8]

According to Sean Mills, then-president of The Onion, the A.V. Club website first received more than 1 million unique visitors in October 2007.[9] In late 2009 the website was reported to have received over 1.4 million unique visitors and 75,000 comments per month.[10]

At its peak the print version of The A.V. Club was available in 17 different cities.[11] Localized sections of the website were also maintained with reviews and news relevant to specific cities. The print version and localized websites were gradually discontinued, and in December 2013 print publication ceased in the final three markets.[12]

On December 13, 2012, long-time writer and editor Keith Phipps, who oversaw the website after Stephen Thompson left, stepped down from his role as editor of The A.V. Club. He said, "Onion, Inc. and I have come to a mutual parting of the ways."[13][14][15]

On April 2, 2013, long-time film editor and critic Scott Tobias stepped down from his role as film editor of The A.V. Club. He stated via Twitter, "After 15 great years @theavclub, I step down as Film Editor next Friday."[16]

On April 26, 2013, long-time writers Nathan Rabin, Tasha Robinson, and Genevieve Koski announced that they would also be leaving the website to begin work on a new project alongside Scott Tobias and Keith Phipps.[17] Koski also stated that she would continue to write freelance articles.[18] Writer Noel Murray announced he would also be joining their new project but would continue to contribute to The A.V. Club in a reduced capacity.[17] On May 30, 2013, it was announced that those six writers would be part of the senior staff of The Dissolve, a film website run by Pitchfork Media.[19]

In April and June 2014, senior staff writers Kyle Ryan, Sonia Saraiya, and Todd VanDerWerff left the website for positions at Entertainment Weekly, Salon and Vox Media, respectively.[20][21] In 2015, Ryan returned to Onion, Inc. for a position in development.[22] Following his departure from The Dissolve earlier that month, Nathan Rabin returned to write freelance for the website in May 2015;[23] this included the renewal of his regular column "My World of Flops". The Dissolve folded in July 2015.[24]

On February 16, 2017 The A.V. Club's editor-at-large, John Teti, posted an article on the website announcing the upcoming release of a television series, titled The A.V. Club, based on the website.[25] The series, hosted by Teti, began airing on Fusion on 16 March 2017 and ran for one season.[26] The series featured news, criticism, and discussions about various popular culture topics and featured staff members from the website.

In January 2016 Univision Communications acquired "a 40 percent, controlling stake" in Onion Inc., the parent company of The A.V. Club.[27] Later that year, Univision also purchased Gawker Media and reorganized several of Gawker's sites into the new Gizmodo Media Group, a division of Fusion Media Group.[28] The site was subsequently migrated from Bulbs, an internal content management system developed by Onion Inc., to the Gawker-developed Kinja platform[29][30], deleting the comment section and audience reviews hosted on the previous site. In July of 2018, Univision announced they were looking for a buyer for the entire Gizmodo Group. [31]

On December 9, 2010, the website ComicsComicsMag revealed that a capsule review for the book Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth had been fabricated. The book had not yet been published nor even completed by the authors.[32] The review was removed, and then-editor Keith Phipps posted an apology on the website.[33] Leonard Pierce, the author of the review, was terminated from his freelance role with the website.[34]

The Tenacity Of The Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders (2002, ISBN1-4000-4724-2) is a collection of 68 interviews featured in previous issues.

Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists (2009, ISBN1-4165-9473-6) is a combination of never-before-published lists and material already available on the AV Club website.

My Year of Flops: The A.V. Club Presents One Man's Journey Deep into the Heart of Cinematic Failure (2010, ISBN1-4391-5312-4) consists of entries taken from the website's recurring My Year of Flops column along with new material not previously available. It is the first A.V. Club release credited to a single author: Nathan Rabin.

Starting in 1999, only lists written by individual writers were published. Beginning in 2006, The A.V. Club began publishing website-consensus year-end album and film rankings alongside lists for individual writers.